Techniques

Alginate is an important raw material made from refined seaweed which is used in a number of industries:
Such as in a wide array of medical and clinical applications. It has a number of applications inthe pharmaceutical industry. In the food and beverage industry, it is used as a thickener, softener and binder. Alginate is also used for a large number of industrial applications such textiles, printer and welding. In the leisure industry it is used as a beauty treatment.

As manufacturers of a variety
of skin-safe mold making materials formulated using alginate (processed
seaweed), we are usually never surprised at alginate's myriad of uses. As
alginates, in its various forms, are used across a wide range of industries, including
the medical, pharmaceutical, food and beverage industries, industrial, crafting
and special effects and even in the beauty spa. Yet here are the most recent new
uses for alginates reported during the month of June 2016 that even surprise us.
Please read on for three new ways this miracle material is being used:

A life-size sculpture of a humpback whale and calf by sculptor, Stephen Kesler hangs in the lobby of the Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Draper, Utah. The sculpture of the adult whale, which measures 50-feet long, was engineered to break into eight pieces to fit through aquarium's doors. The pieces were moved into the aquarium and then reassembled.

The 2016 annual Chinese Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival was held Harbin,Heilongjiang,China. The event began about 17 years ago, and has become a world attraction. Bringing ten to fifteen visitors, with ten thousand workers cutting and hauling ice it is the world's largest ice festival covering 600,000 square meters with ice edifices topping 46 meters high.

Moulage is the French word for molding . But it is also the name for a popular reusable mold making product. It is made in part from agar agar, which is extracted from seaweed. Moulage brand mold making material is an old-timey formula evolved from a reversible hydrocolloid impression material. More importantly it is a reusable and skin-safe in which the solid material is heated until it melts and then applied to the skin or poured into a mold box. Agar agar formulas have been popular dental mold making materials for almost a century. It was developed in Austria in 1925, and has been used in dentistry until dental alginate impression materials became widespread.

Though polyurethane rubbers have been displacing latex as the material of choice for the molds for concrete castings, latex still has the longest library life of of any materials currently available today. Latex often lasts for many decades without losing mold details. Its abrasion resistant surfaces makes it an ideal choice when creating concrete garden objects.The advantage of polyurethane rubber is that it takes less time to create a mold. However, the big disadvantage is that it is more expensive than latex mold making rubber. A good latex mold requires up to fifteen or more applications to achieve an 1/8th inch mold surface, whereas polyurethane may require only three layers for the same thickness. In this example, we demonstrate how to make a two-part latex brush-on mold for casting garden ornaments. Please follow this link for a complete explanation in pictures

As a young artist Marc Sijan shared projects with legendary Duane Hanson to develop finishing
techniques that they both incorporated into their sculptures. Sijan has
elevated to pre-eminence in a golden age of hyper realistic sculpture. Hailed as
the successor to Hanson as Master of the genre. Sijan is the only artist to
have worked with Hanson.